Visiting Hours
by Chocolate Usagi
Summary: Roy Mustang realizes it has been three weeks since he has visited his Master Sergeant in the hospital.


The Cow owns FMA.

I'm confused. See, Kain Fuery is my favorite character on FMA, but in my fics, he's usually either dead or otherwise incapacitated. Hm. There might be something wrong with me. Anyway, enjoy! :3

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Visiting Hours…  
--

"I'm sorry, Colonel, but you can't go in there right now."

Roy Mustang stared down seriously at the older woman in front of him.

"Why not?"

The secretary flipped furiously through some of the papers on her desk. She found the one she wanted and held it up to her face, squinting her eyes and adjusting her glasses.

"Ah. I'm afraid the Master Sergeant has a visitor right now sir."

"And…?"

"And there's a strictly enforced limitation of one visitor per IC patient at any given time."

Mustang thought this over carefully.

"I'm sorry?"

"Anyone who's admitted to the Intensive Care unit can only have one visitor at a time."

"Well, he's in a _coma_. I don't think he'll mind."

"I'm sorry, sir, but rules are rules. And anyway, right now…_she's_ in there."

Mustang detected a sly smile across the woman's face.

"She?"

"Yes. _She_."

Mustang expected the secretary to elaborate. Instead, she turned her attention back to her papers.

"I see. I'll just wait, then."

"Oh, I wouldn't."

Mustang, who was halfway to a chair, retracted back to face the woman once again, a questioning look gracing his usually poised features.

"And why wouldn't you?"

"Well, _she's_ been here all day, she has."

"Oh, has she?"

"Yes. She comes in everyday at seven in the morning and doesn't leave that room until seven at night. She stays here through _all_ the visiting hours."

"She doesn't leave the room?"

"That's right."

"She doesn't leave at all?"

"At. All."

Mustang considered this.

"When does she eat?"

"Oh, well. She's such a sweet little thing, really. And most everyone on the staff simply adores her. We don't mind sparing one free lunch a day. And, you know, at first she didn't even want to take it! But we told her we were gonna fix her up something anyway and while it may not be that tasty at least it was something. And she told us not to bother, but we brought her a tray from the cafeteria all the same. And you know what? She ate it, because she didn't want the food and our hard work to go to waste, she said." She clicked her tongue and shook her head. "Such a sweet girl."

Mustang digested this carefully.

"Who is she? A sister?"

The woman scanned her papers once again.

"Nuh, uh. She's got a different last name. Charm."

"Miss Charm, huh? Well, if you don't mind, I think I'll wait around all the same."

To this, he got a shrug as the woman returned to work. "Suit yourself."

--

At seven pm sharp, December Charm let out a tired sigh. She glanced over at the bed with disdainful eyes. Placing her bookmark back in her novel, she trotted over to the hospital bed.

"Well, Kain, I'm going. I'll be back tomorrow. Get better."

Bending down, she placed a soft, chaste kiss on the man's cheek before turning on her heel.

"I love you enough. For forever."

Then, as she left the pristine, white room, nothing was left but the whirring and beeping of the machines.

"Goodnight, Giselle," December said, smiling half-heartedly and waving at the secretary.

"Night, December. We'll expect you the same time tomorrow morning?"

December smiled a bit more and nodded solemnly. Pushing the door open, she mentally chastised herself for not bringing a sweater when she left her house. Listening intently to the rhythmic sound of her shoes clacking on the street, December clutched her book close to her chest and made her way home.

"Miss Charm?"

She stopped suddenly and spun slowly around.

"Yes?" she asked hesitantly. A tall, unfamiliar (albeit rather attractive) man with black hair jogged over to her. She recognized he was wearing a blue military jacket. "Do I know you?"

"No. We've never met before."

"Oh…" December apprehensively glanced back to the hospital wondering if she could dash around this man and take cover inside if she needed to.

"I won't hurt you. I promise," the mysteriously charming man assured her, as if he could read her thoughts. He extended his arm downward. "I'm Colonel Roy Mustang."

December's suspicious gaze softened considerable. Noticeably. She shook the hand in front of her.

"December Charm."

There was a moment of comfortable silence between the two.

"Kain spoke of you. Often," pointed out the young woman.

"Oh, did he? All good things, I assume?"

"Yes. He said…he said that you were a good man. Dependable and trustworthy. And _modest_," she added, obviously poking fun at the man, who chuckled lightly at this. Then she realized he was still holding her hand. As she began to pull it back, she felt him hold on. She glanced questioningly at him, and seeing his features cast downward at her hand, looked down also.

Her ring.

Her eyes closed briefly before she twisted out of his grip.

"What are you to Fuery?"

"I'm his fiancée."

More silence.

"I should go."

"Why do you spend all your time at the hospital?"

December looked up to face him. This time, her brown eyes had hardened a bit, almost on the verge of anger, but not quite.

"Would you, if someone you loved were hurt and needed you?"

"He's in a _coma_. There's nothing you can do. You're wasting your time."

"I am _not_! If I'm there…he might…if he hears me…maybe he'll…"

"Wake up?" he interjected.

"…Maybe."

He looked down at her with a pitying expression.

"It was so much easier when he still worked in East City. But when he got transferred and had to move to Central, I couldn't see him everyday. And that was _so hard_. The day he left for Central City, I saw him off at the train station. I was…scared. I didn't know what was going to happen between us, but I didn't want to let him go. For once I wanted to be selfish and keep him here with me."

"Then why didn't you?"

"Because. I…had to think of him. I thought what I wanted most was for Kain to always be by my side, but in all honesty, I found that I just want him to be happy. So I had to do what was best for him. But when we were at the train station, he told me that he was worried that, you know, I would find someone else and forget about him and move on. And I told him that he had verbalized everything I had been too scared to say. And then he just smiled…and said that that was what he was hoping I would say. Then he gave me the ring. He told me that if I would wait for him, then when he came back from Central, he would marry me. And he told me…that he'd love me enough for forever."

December stopped suddenly, fingering the ring on her hand. Mustang concluded that she simply couldn't speak anymore. Until, that is, she cleared her throat and ploughed on.

"Why are you here all of a sudden, Mr. Mustang?"

Mustang evaluated this question before responding.

"I noticed that it had been nearly three weeks since my subordinate had been hospitalized and I had yet to check in on him once."

December watched the Colonel carefully, an interesting look on her face. She obviously appeared to be in deep thought, but somehow seemed at a loss as for how to put her feelings into words. She wrung her hands together nervously and suddenly seemed to find the ground very interesting. When she looked back up, the young girl looked so…hopeless. Her eyes were wide and wet and her soft features were twisted and contorted into a terrible grimace. Even her shoulders were slumped over.

"You don't think he'll wake up, do you, Colonel?" she asked, and Mustang could barely hear her strained voice. It was a good thing he learned to read lips in Ishbal. They held each other's gaze silently for a moment.

"It's been three weeks, Miss Charm."

"So?!"

"Three wee--"

"I don't care!" December had now wrapped her arms around her head and had sunk down onto her knees right there on the cold sidewalk. She crushed her eyes closed in a vain attempt to either keep the image of the man in front of her out, or her salty tears in. Or both.

"You can ignore what I say all you want, but it won't change anything. I am a soldier. I've been _through_ this. I _know_ what the human body goes through in battle, and I know that people don't wake up so easily after slipping into a coma for _three fucking weeks_!"

Those last words echoed in the darkness. December's arms had fallen limply to her sides and her eyes were fixed to the ground once again, but the look in them was so much different from the one she had before. Before those eyes held a curious sort of defiance and an irresistible innocence. Now they held…

Nothing. Just. Nothing.

Mustang watched her with a pitiful look and decided it was best to leave. He had gone and upset her, and he knew Fuery would never have forgiven him. He strode past her stoically without even casting her a sideways glance. He was almost to the crosswalk when he heard her voice again.

"H-he will, you know."

He turned slowly to find December still rooted to the ground. She had twisted around to look at him with those same hollow brown eyes.

"He will. Kain will wake up, I know it. And I'll-l be there."

Mustang couldn't take it anymore so he simply continued on his way, drawing the collar of his military jacket up to block the brisk wind from his face and to hide the hot tears he suddenly felt rolling down his cheeks.

"I'll be there!" she cried out once more.

"I hope you will."

--

Yay! I finished one! See, I was flipping through all my unfinished ficlets and I came across this one and I thought, "Hey! I should post this! It doesn't suck nearly as hard as that other crap I usually write!" …So, I did.

I hope you all enjoyed six pages of Kain in a coma and take part in the Fuery Revolution! HE DESERVES HIS OWN SECTION!

CU: Out.


End file.
